The Minneapolis Board of Education cancelled their contract with the City Police Department to station officers in their schools.\u00a0\u00a0In the wake of the George Floyd murder by a Minneapolis Police officer, the Board felt they no longer could have officers as part of their educational process.\u00a0\u00a0It probably wasn\u2019t about the individual officers in the buildings.\u00a0\u00a0The Board of Education must feel that the continued presence of \u201cpolice\u201d in their buildings would continue the hostile environment that Minneapolis minority students already feel outside the school.\u00a0\u00a0The Board felt they had to \u201ctake a side,\u201d and chose their students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The movement to \u201cimbed\u201d police officers into school systems, particularly at the high school level, started back in Flint, Michigan in the 1950\u2019s. The idea was to create relationships between the students and police officers outside of normal enforcement. In the 1970\u2019s, some large urban school districts actually created their own sworn police forces (think of the 1984 movie Teachers <\/em>with Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams and Ralph Macchio). But the liability and expense made \u201cschool-cops\u201d an expendable item on Districts budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That changed in the age of school shootings, and particularly after Columbine. Districts began to look for ways to get the ultimate protection, a police officer with a gun, full time in the school building. The speed of casualties in a school shooting meant that the officer presence in the building could save lives. And, it didn\u2019t hurt that from 1999 to 2005, the US Department of Justice gave $750 million in grants for \u201cSchool Resource Officers\u201d, SRO\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But today, SRO\u2019s don\u2019t just \u201csit around\u201d and wait for a school shooter.\u00a0\u00a0They patrol the building and get involved in student discipline issues, including fights and drug use.\u00a0 SRO’s serve as contact for students who need to report criminal issues, particularly for abuse situations.\u00a0\u00a0They advise school administrators about security needs for the buildings and for large school events.\u00a0\u00a0And they do exactly what the 1950\u2019s Flint plan hoped:\u00a0\u00a0communicate with kids on an informal basis, establishing relationships between \u201ccops and kids\u201d outside of speeding tickets, traffic accidents and regular policing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a high school Dean of Students, I had the opportunity to work with several Student Resource Officers.\u00a0\u00a0All of them took their role as a bridge from police to students seriously. They reached out to students that didn\u2019t necessarily have other adults at school they could talk to.\u00a0\u00a0From that standpoint, having an SRO in the building was a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was common for the SRO to be \u201changing out\u201d in the cafeteria at lunchtime. What looked like \u201clunch duty\u201d was really an opportunity for conversation and building relationships. Our SRO\u2019s even wandered up to the gym, open for lunchtime \u201crecess\u201d, and shot a basket or two. It made \u201cthe police\u201d accessible to students in a non-threatening way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the problem today is that what were traditionally \u201cschool problems,\u201d in-house discipline issues, now have become criminal issues.\u00a0\u00a0The fight in the hallway, or the kid with a pocketknife or a joint in his pocket now is \u201cautomatically\u201d a police report and possible juvenile court referral.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cschool to prison\u201d pipeline, fueled by \u201czero-tolerance\u201d policies, creates the first contact with the justice system. That record has future consequences in punishment and sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not that the SRO\u2019s are wrong:\u00a0\u00a0they are doing their job.\u00a0\u00a0A police officer in a public situation like a school environment can\u2019t look away when a weapon is found or an illegal drug is involved.\u00a0\u00a0But what was school discipline; suspension or expulsion back in the 1980\u2019s or 90\u2019s now may result in a criminal conviction as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not that schools shouldn\u2019t call the police.\u00a0\u00a0There are situations where it\u2019s more than necessary:\u00a0\u00a0a gang-fight in the halls, the rumor of a gun in the building, the adult coming to school to hurt someone.\u00a0\u00a0All of those things happened during my tenure as Dean of Students.\u00a0\u00a0And all of those occurred when the school district couldn\u2019t afford to have an SRO.\u00a0 We had to handle those things in-house until the police could arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Districts need to weigh the balance between education and policing.\u00a0\u00a0Having an SRO embedded in the school might work in the suburban district where I was Dean of Students. But it might not work in the more polarized environment of an urban school.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not about being for the cops or against.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s about what\u2019s best for the students in that school system.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what Minneapolis had to weigh. And that\u2019s what Districts across the country will have to consider in our new \u201cI Can\u2019t Breathe\u201d era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the Job<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Balancing Needs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n